Ad copy

Copy is not the caption. It is every word the ad uses to move someone one step: the first line of the script, the text burned into the frame, the headline under the image, and the sentence beside the button.

Anatomy

Part	Job	Fails when
Hook	Buy attention in the first seconds	It describes the product instead of the reader
Promise	State what changes	It is a feature, not an outcome
Proof	Make the promise credible	It asserts rather than demonstrates
Objection	Remove the reason to hesitate	It ignores the real hesitation
Call to action	Say the next step, once, plainly	It offers three options

Everything after the hook is wasted if the hook fails, which is why hook variants are the cheapest test in the account.

Hooks that do work

A hook earns attention by being about the reader, not the brand:

• A specific situation — "If your ads stop working every third week…"
• A contradiction — something the reader believes, stated as wrong
• A number — concrete, unusual, and checkable
• An objection said first — naming the doubt before they do
• An in-progress moment — starting mid-action rather than with a title card

The weakest openings are brand names, logos, slow establishing shots, and the word "Introducing".

Writing for the placement

The same message needs different construction per surface:

Surface	Reads as	Practical rule
Feed image	Headline plus one line	Put the promise in the image; assume the caption is unread
Short video	Spoken hook	Say the hook out loud in the first two seconds, and caption it
Story / vertical	Full-screen, sound-off first	Text must survive with no audio
Search	Query match	Echo the words the person typed
Landing page	Continuation	Repeat the ad's exact promise above the fold

Voice

Consistent voice is worth more than clever lines. Fix three things and copy stays recognizable across dozens of ads: the reading level, whether you address the reader directly, and which claims you are allowed to make. Those constraints live in Brand Brain so generated copy inherits them instead of drifting.

Claims

Anything measurable in the copy has to be true and supportable: performance figures, comparisons, guarantees, health or financial outcomes. Platform review rejects unsupported claims, and the ones that pass review are the ones that create refunds later. See ad policy.